A daily diary by John Cossham, who tries to live a 'green' and ethical life......
Daily blog entries for several years but now just occasional diary updates. The 'pages' section is being expanded and updated.

Sunday, 22 July 2007

Sunday 22nd July 07 - Masham Steam Rally

Woke early, about 6.30, but then dozed and got up in time for breakfast at about 9am... which was the usual British B n B fare of cereals, cooked breakfast (eggs fried hard as I like them, mushrooms, beans, funny potato thingies, veggie sausages, toast, orange juice...) and a carafe of coffee.. another huge pile of food. My unicycle had developed a loose crank the previous night so I walked it to the showground, with back pack and all my gear, after paying Sue. She'd asked me for only £10, but I told her that wasn't enough for the comfort I'd had, and the food, and gave her £20, still reasonable for a night's stopover.

An engineer on the Rallyground sorted my unicycle with a rubber mallet and socket set, and I did more unicycling, this time with yoyo balls, which are fairly unusual and people stop and stare, as they're quaintly chaotic and look weird (Astrojax is their correct name), also did some devilsticking walkabout as the weather was drier, and of course more balloons. I must have made about 150 balloon models over the weekend, and told most of the recipients how to recycle them once they burst or go down.... on the compost heap! (Natural latex rubber is biodegradable, vulcanised rubber, with sulphur added, isn't)

Another big lunch, sun came out, more people on site, more stuff going on, including a biplane doing tricks, motorbike displays including jumping through fire... a huge pall of oily black smoke, I thought there'd been an accident, and good humour as this felt like a proper summer event, although the ground was still challenging to unicycle on/in!

I got paid and got a lift back to Thirsk for the 4.19 train, which was late and didn't come til 5pm, but did have a good chat to a long-haired photographer called John, and we talked about cameras and various green issues.

When back in York, and all gear stowed safely on the trailer, popped into Out Of This World to do my Friday pickup(!) and came home really loaded up, bike straining with the weight of two unicycles, bag o tricks, costume, training unicycles AND all the compostables. Home by 6pm, Gill fed me an interesting stew-with-scone-topping, and I put a load of the compostable stuff on one of my many heaps, although there's loads of 'spelt grain' which is out of date, but what do I do with it? I don't want to compost it, I'd like to know how to use it. Any recipes, please email them to me at johncossham@tiscali.co.uk thanks! (I'm assuming someone actually reads this now it's appeared on a list of blogs worth reading... yes I Googled my own name again the other day!)

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About Me

I am a very enthusiastic 'green' and am involved in a range of projects and community groups which are directly connected with sustainability. These include the Green Party, York in Transition, St Nicholas Fields , Frack-Free York, The World Naked Bike Ride, Alternatives to Violence Project, and others. . . . . . . . . .
I am happily married with two children, and am unconventional and a free thinker, with a very tolerant wife! . . . . . . . . .
I work as an entertainer, 'Professor Fiddlesticks' teaching circus skills and making people happy, since 1992. see wwww.professorfiddlesticks.co.uk
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A few years ago, I wrote a blog and column for Community Care, see www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/ .
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In early 2010 I was invited by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce to apply for Fellowship. . . . . . .
To contact me 'off blog' either find me on Facebook or email me at
jscossham(at)gmail(dot)com